Teneale Bender
- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Teneale Anderson Bender entered this world unexpectedly. She was the
second, of the only set of twins to her parents had... who were
expecting only one child. Having only one name designated they decided
to split the name in half and gave their mothers maiden to both twin
girls as their middle name. At a very early age she fell in love with
the performing arts. She would receive a dollar to sing, Whitney
Houston's "I believe the children are the future", little did she know
how prophetic these words were. Seven marked a very exciting moment for
Teneale. She entered a special school by the name of Sydney Lanier, a
vanguard for the performing arts, where she studied tap, jazz, folk,
played the clarinet and studied theatre. She was very involved in extra
curricular activities such as hosting "Roots and Wings", a local cable
access show produced by the Dallas Urban League, under Mamie McKnight
of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce. In the summer she would take
classes from Cable Access on how to produce and direct your own work.
When junior high approached Teneale was still undecided on what area of
the arts she would focus on, so she auditioned for dance and theatre
and was accepted by both. Forced to make a decision, she decided to
focus on theatre. It was very hard for Teneale to find her path.
Teneale grew very frustrated with her understudy roles, which seemed to
always find her, so when the opportunity came for visibility outside of
her regular instructor's opinion she chose to show up and show out. In
doing so, she landed her first industrial film. This was when Teneale
knew that she had a love for the dramatic arts. At the tender age of
14, Teneale took on a role as "The Aids Virus" for the Southwestern
Medical Center in Dallas, TX. This brought many opportunities her way.
She also booked a print job for a Greyhound billboard. When it came
time for high school, she continued on studying theatre, however she
began to get more exposure to others fields of theatre both on stage
and off. Teneale began to shift her focus and began to stay after
school to learn more about costume design and construction. It wasn't
long before Teneale hard work and promising talent was noticed by her
teacher Mrs. Dean. Molly Dean began to invest much more of her personal
time cultivating the young enthusiast. Eventually that enthusiasm
allotted her an opportunity to design, pattern and construct specific
characters costumes for different students playing these roles. Outside
of school, she began to write as Fashion Editor for local magazine "411
Mag". There was one form of performance that Teneale was smitten by
mime. She studied mime intensely for three years. At the same time she
also began to dibble dabble in set design, but found a true interest in
light design. During her senior year in school she had the opportunity
to design and act as light technician for a Soul Repertory Theatre
Production "Love Awaits" starring Erykah Badu at The South Dallas
Cultural Center. As soon as she graduated from high school Molly and
Joe Dean paid for Teneale to study Fashion Design that summer. When the
summer sessions ended she then attended Texas Woman's University where
she majored in Fashion Design and minored in Theatre. While maintaining
her grades in school she began to stage-manage for a local television
show based in Phoenix, AZ, "Cedric Ceballos Studio 23". Right around
the same time, Teneale also got the opportunity to host segments of
Dallas local show "Hard N' Soul". She had the honor of interviewing
fellow alumni Roy Hargrove, D'Angelo and Usher Raymond at the Essence
Awards in New Orleans. In her sophomore year of school she decided to
step away for a while in pursuit of a show she created of her own,
Splat TV on Fox affiliate Channel 39. Splat TV, was an urban lifestyle
magazine show hosted by Dominique Lashae' and Teneale Bender. Sheryl
Underwood and Michael Washington were featured on the early shows
before it was dropped. Teneale finally called school quits when
Dominique Lashae' introduced a new template for a show to her, with
freedom to develop her own segment. "Take A Look" was the name of her
segment, which happens to exactly resemble another version entitled
"The Center" that was broadcast on BET a few years ago. Teneale covered
events such as the Twentieth BET Anniversary, and The Essence Festival.
The Factory aired on Fridays on KSTR Channel 49, which was brought by
UPN. When she was unexpectedly let go from the producer she decided to
continue her day job as personal assistant to Trent DiGuillio, owner of
Computed Animated Technology. Teneale got her first chance to dance in
a video when her boss got the account to produce a Master P video in
full 3-D Animation, "Souljas". To satisfy her desire to create she
began to create special events surrounding athletic sporting events.
While developing her own company she was highly sought out by the
editor of Attitude Magazine to write for the featured articles, where
she contributed articles on Master P, Mystical, Guru, Slum Village,
Bahamadia and The Roots. The editor Montanna Mitchem then created her
own magazine becoming publisher of "Backstage Magazine" which gave her
the opportunity to cover the BET Awards three years in a row. In 2003,
Teneale moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career in acting.